Operation Smile

I helped out with Operation Smile last week. All the families were Palestinians, and they were so nice! Made me wish we had Peace Corps Palestine...

Not all of the kids had cleft lips and palates. Some of them had really severe scarring from burns, usually from hot tea (my guess is you know that sugar elevates water's boiling point, and they put quite a bit of sugar in their tea here). There were also kids with really big black marks on their faces--I don't know for sure if they were just intense birth marks or what. A couple had bad burns on their faces.

My days went from about 6 or 7am until 10 or 11pm. We would take a bus full of patients over to the hospital in the morning for their operations, and sometimes another trip of patients in the afternoon. We had to be Nazis, not letting the patients eat or drink anything--especially little kids because they can die if they do.

When I went to the hospital, I helped out there. When I stayed at the hotel with patients that were still waiting their turn, we'd play volleyball upstairs, work on a puzzle, color, play with playdoh...all that jazz. Most of the little kids were operated on first, and then they got progressively older. There were quite a few teenagers. I'll give you the highlights:

• I watched an operation up close. Crazy, I know. If you're wondering how, I just asked the meanest looking lady there was, because she was in charge, and then she actually let me go in. I watched a kid getting a lump taken out of his back. I know readers have different levels of how much information they can handle, so I'll leave out the details. I wore the full get-up--doctor apron, mask, hair cover, shoe covers.
• Sat with Isma (adorable little girl, below) during her speech therapy. She likes to hold hands. And to tickle people.
• Performed a search in someone's room looking for some documents--it felt really weird to be going through someone's things. Kind of felt like I was a detective or something.
  
• Had a wonderful dinner of pizza and beer on my last night in Amman. Don't get too excited--it was only one beer. Boys went out to get the drinks and us girls went to get the pizza. Amazing. (there were three guys and three of us girls)

It was so much fun!

This is Bill and his tallness...

This week I've been home sick for the most part. I went into work today after missing two days thanks to illness, and it was a big mistake. I'm a lot worse than I was, so I won't be going in tomorrow. Blah. My greatest fear at the moment is running out of tissues!

Much love.